9 Free Fall

The first thing to do, Peters realized, was track down the earlier investigation into the death of the second wife, the one named Jan. There might be details there that could shed light on Randy’s more recent activities, maybe even the name of an insurance broker. That might help her learn whether Cindy Roth had also been insured.

Mary Jo’s story about the death of the first wife—actually, the second wife, Peters reminded herself—dovetailed somewhat with the information from Stacey Reese and Roseanne. Mary Jo, of course, had more details: Mt. Rainier, climbing, ropes. That would be a start. Once she got that pinned down, she could look for someone who might know about life insurance on Cindy; maybe Lori Baker would know about that.

Mt. Rainier, the 14,410-foot dormant volcano that dominates the skyline southeast of Seattle, is one of the premier climbing meccas in the country. It was perfectly plausible that Jan Roth—Peters assumed Jan used Randy’s last name—had fallen while climbing there. Each year, it seemed, several people were killed on the mountain. The peak was in Pierce County, the county immediately to the south of Seattle. Peters called the Pierce County Medical Examiner’s Office to see whether they had any record of a Jan Roth having been killed on Mt. Rainier. The Pierce County officials told her they had no Jan Roth in their records.

Rats! thought Peters. Five minutes later, she called the state’s bureau of vital statistics. An official there found a record for the death of a Janis L. Roth, who had died November 27, 1981 at a place called Beacon Rock State Park in Skamania County. Peters knew Skamania County was in the mountainous south-central portion of Washington State, along the Columbia River, about an hour east of Portland, Oregon.

The death certificate for Janis Roth said she had been twenty-nine years old when she died in a three-hundred-foot fall from Beacon Rock, a near vertical, ancient volcanic plug that rose some eight hundred feet above the Columbia River valley. The rock was at the center of a state park. Another park, Peters noted. The records identified the dead woman’s husband as Randolph G. Roth of Mountlake Terrace. The death was classified as an accident. Was it the same Randy Roth?

Peters dialed the number for the Skamania County Sheriff’s Office and was connected with Undersheriff Mike Grossie. Peters explained that she was investigating the recent death of a woman named Cynthia Roth, who had been married to a man named Randy Roth. Peters said she’d heard of a Randy Roth who had been married to a woman who had died in a fall in Grossie’s jurisdiction. Her question was: was this the same man as her Randy Roth?

Grossie remembered his Randy Roth very well. He found the file on the fatal fall. His Randy Roth had the same birthdate as Peters’ Randy and the same driver’s license number. It had to be the same person, Grossie agreed. Grossie, who supervised and often conducted most of the criminal investigations for the largely rural county, went on to tell Peters why he was quite familiar with his Randy Roth.

Ten years earlier, Grossie told Peters, he was convinced that his Randy had murdered Janis Roth by shoving her off Beacon Rock to collect $100,000 in insurance on her life. He just hadn’t been able to prove it.